1. Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a semiconductor technology, and more particularly, to a variable resistance memory device and a method for fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variable resistance memory device stores data using a variable resistance material which switches between different resistance states depending on an applied voltage or current. Currently, various variable resistance memory devices such as ReRAM (Resistive Random Access Memory), PCRAM (Phase-change Random Access Memory), FRAM (Ferroelectric Random Access Memory), and MRAM (Magnetic Random Access Memory) have been developed.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional variable resistance memory device.
Referring to FIG. 1, the variable resistance memory device includes a bottom electrode 100, a top electrode 120, and a variable resistance layer 110 interposed therebetween.
The variable resistance memory device may be fabricated by a series of processes of forming a bottom electrode 100 over a substrate (not shown) having a predetermined lower structure formed therein, depositing a variable resistance material on the resultant structure having the bottom electrode 100, forming a variable resistance layer 110 by selectively etching the variable resistance material, and forming a top electrode 120 over the variable resistance layer 110.
When the above-described fabrication method is used, sidewalls of the variable resistance layer 110 are damaged in the course of being etched. The damaged sidewalls may cause various problems. For example, sidewall characteristics of the variable resistance layer 110 may be changed, and a leakage current may occur through the sidewalls (denoted with a symbol ‘L’ in FIG. 1). Such problems may gradually increase as the device is scaled down.